Oracle Applications Flexfields

Hi,
In this blog i am going to list out the various aspects of an important concept in Oracle Applications called Flexfields. So, What are/is flexfield/s? : In a nutshell, flexfields are flexible fields to store important information about the organization/company in Oracle Applications.Flexfields allow screens and reports to contain data that is uniquely relevant for your organization.Each flexfield can be configured to capture and display the specific information you want.
There are two types of flexfields: Key and Descriptive.Key flexfields are used throughout the applications to uniquely identify information -- General ledger accounts,inventory items, fixed assets and other entities that every business needs to keep track of.
Descriptive Flexfields enable you to capture additional pieces of information from transactions entered into Oracle Applications.
Descriptive and Key flexfields share common features.They are multisegment fields,the number of segments and the length of each are totally under your control when you set up the applications.
When you navigate to a flexfield in a form, a pop-up window appears,you enter appropriate values for each segment or pick values from a pull-down list.The application validates individual segments according to value-set rules , ensures that the combination of segments makes sense using cross-validation rules.
Descriptive flexfields are recognized in most of the oracle applications database tables as attribute columns and key flexfields are usually segment columns.
More on flexfields will follow in the next posts....